The Western Conference has been a meat-grinder for years, which makes any attempt to forecast a playoff field before the regular season has even started even more challenging.

Last season, the Rockets sneaked in as the eighth seed with a robust 45 victories. And that's actually the fewest number of victories for the No. 8 seed in the West during an 82-game season since 2007. The conference is deep and loaded again this season and that could mean it will take 50 victories to get into the field, like it did for the West in 2008 and 2010.

With that in mind, here is one semi-educated guess on what the Western Conference playoff field will look like come April:

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